Microsoft Windows 10 still collects activity data even when tracking is disabled., but there is a new workaround way to block it. 🙂

Starting with Windows 10 build 17040, Microsoft added settings that let you to view and manage your activity history, which Cortana uses to let you pick up where you left off. Your collected activity history allows you to jump back into what you were doing with apps, docs, or other activities, either on your PC or your phone. To resume your activities, Windows needs to collect your PC activity.

If you like, you can enable or disable letting Windows collect User Activities.

If enabled, Let Windows collect my activities will be turned on for all users, but users will still be able to turn this setting on or off for their account.
If disabled, Let Windows collect my activities will be turned off for all users, and users will not be able to turn this setting on or off for their account.

To enable or disable Activity history settings to let Windows collect User Activities for all users in Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable online tips and help for the Settings app
Timeline requires the Windows Search service to be enabled, running, and set to Automatic (Delayed Start).

Enable or Disable Collect Activity History in Local Group Policy Editor

Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option TWO below.

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2. In the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\OS Policies

In the right pane of OS Policies in Local Group Policy Editor, double click/tap on the Allow publishing of User Activities policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4. Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

If you want to replicate all Domain Controllers, then you have to start replication on each of them separately. This may take a while. To save time there is an easier way to force replication on all Domain Controllers of all Active Directory Sites.

Log on to one of your Domain Controllers. Start Windows PowerShell with administrative privileges. Using the Get-ADDomain cmdlet we can get the domain name and the domain partition.

Prepare for 2019

End of Public Updates for Oracle JDK 8

Oracle will not post further updates of Java SE 8 to its public download sites for commercial use after January 2019. Customers who need continued access to critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for Java SE 8 or previous versions can get long term support through Oracle Java SE Advanced Desktop, or Oracle Java SE Suite. For more information, and details on how to receive longer term support for Oracle JDK 8, please see the Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap.

Is Oracle Java still free?

The current version of Java – Java SE 9 as well as Java SE 8 – is free and available for redistribution for general purpose computing. Java SE continues to be available under the Oracle Binary Code License (BCL) free of charge.
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) use for embedded devices or use of commercial features may require a license fee from Oracle. Read more about embedded use of Java SE, or contact your local Oracle sales representative to obtain a license.

What releases of Java technology are currently available?

The Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) and Oracle Java SE Advanced and Suite products are currently shipping from Oracle in the form of the Java Development Kit (JDK), and Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The current releases of the software and links to older versions are available from the Java SE download page.

What are the Oracle Java licensing changes?

Due to the Oracle Java license cost changes, companies will need to collect and identify every application that is running Java SE 8 before the beginning of 2019. Doing so will ensure an accurate forecast of costs and potential non-compliance risk for future software audits in upcoming years.

*Note:
A: The Named User Plus minimum for this program is 2,000 NUP licenses.
B: The Named User Plus minimum for this program is 10 NUP per Processor.

What should you do now?

In light of Oracle’s recent announcement, companies should begin considering:

How to anticipate the situation?

How many Java installations do we have, where and why?

Are there usages embedded?

Can we replace Java with another technology?

What will the cost be in January 2019?

Oracle suggests running a tool to ﬁnd Java installations using a Java package called Java Usage Tracker. This will report information like:

The Java versions

Application name

Type (applet, command line, etc).

Location and more

However, the Oracle Java Usage Tracker requires a commercial license 🙂 – even though it’s included in the installer that comes with the free components.

Disabling Java Updates

Small to Medium sized organizations may not want to pay and should consider disabling updates altogether.

Windows Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2/2016 (x64)

There’s a registry setting in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE that will allow you to completely disable both update notifications and the update functionality.
The full path of the key is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\JavaUpdate\Policy
The registry entry is named
EnableJavaUpdate and is a DWORD value that defaults to 1 for the update functionality to be enabled. Setting the value to 0 disables updates.
When updates are enabled:

64-bit registry redirection:

There is a subkey located at
HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node that contains the relevant settings for 32-bit applications, and within here, is the expected JavaSoft registry key. This is similar to the automatic system controlled C:\Windows\SysWOW64 directory for 32-bit compatiblity.
To disable updates, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JavaSoft\JavaUpdate\Policy\
Create a new DWORD value called
EnableAutoUpdateCheck , and set it to 0.
Change the key
EnableJavaUpdate to 0; this stops any needing to install updates, and annoying prompts that non-admin users get for installing updates.

Windows Server 2003/2008 (x86)

Stop the update utility from running by deleting the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\SunJavaUpdateSched
Reboot the server.
In rare cases the control panel needs to be opened as administrator. To do this follow the steps below:
Save this as Java32_Fix.reg and run and it will fix those javacpl.exe as Administrator/Control Panel issues once and for all:

As users and organizations are upgrading to Windows 10 Build 1709/1803 they should be aware that SMB 1.0 is no longer installed by default. Among other things, this is going to start a lot of problems especially for the networking and security departments where they might be trying to figure out if it is a firewall that is blocking or an AV program that is limiting the access to the share.

In Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (1709), and Windows Server, version 1709 (RS3) and later versions, the Server Message Block version 1 (SMBv1) network protocol is no longer installed by default. It was superseded by SMBv2 and later protocols starting in 2007. Microsoft publicly deprecated the SMBv1 protocol in 2014.

SMBv1 has the following behavior in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and Windows Server, version 1709 (RS3):

SMBv1 now has both client and server sub-features that can be uninstalled separately.

Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education no longer contain the SMBv1 client or server by default after a clean installation.

Windows Server 2016 no longer contains the SMBv1 client or server by default after a clean installation.

Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Professional no longer contain the SMBv1 server by default after a clean installation.

Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Professional still contain the SMBv1 client by default after a clean installation. If the SMBv1 client is not used for 15 days in total (excluding the computer being turned off), it automatically uninstalls itself.

In-place upgrades and Insider flights of Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Professional do not automatically remove SMB1 initially. If the SMBv1 client or server is not used for 15 days in total (excluding the time during which the computer is off), they each automatically uninstall themselves.

In-place upgrades and Insider flights of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education do not automatically remove SMB1. An administrator must decide to uninstall SMB1 in these managed environments.

Automatic removal of SMB1 after 15 days is a one-time operation. If an administrator re-installs SMB1, no further attempts will be made to uninstall it.

The SMB version 2.02, 2.1, 3.0, 3.02, and 3.1.1 features are still fully supported and included by default as part of the SMBv2 binaries.

Because the Computer Browser service relies on SMBv1, the service is uninstalled if the SMBv1 client or server is uninstalled. This means that Explorer Network can no longer display Windows computers through the legacy NetBIOS datagram browsing method.

SMBv1 can still be reinstalled in all editions of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.

If you try to connect to devices that support only SMBv1, or if these devices try to connect to you, you may receive one of the following errors messages:

You can’t connect to the file share because it’s not secure. This share requires the obsolete SMB1 protocol, which is unsafe and could expose your system to attack. Your system requires SMB2 or higher. For more info on resolving this issue, see: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=852747

Work Around:

To work around this issue, contact the manufacturer of the product that supports only SMBv1, and request a software or firmware update that support SMBv2.02 or a later version. For a current list of known vendors and their SMBv1 requirements, see the following Windows and Windows Server Storage Engineering Team Blog article:

Leasing mode

If SMBv1 is required to provide application compatibility for legacy software behavior, such as a requirement to disable oplocks, Windows provides a new SMB share flag that’s known as Leasing mode. This flag specifies whether a share disables modern SMB semantics such as leases and oplocks.

You can specify a share without using oplocks or leasing to allow a legacy application to work with SMBv2 or a later version. To do this, use the New-SmbShare or Set-SmbShare PowerShell cmdlets together with the -LeasingMode None parameter.

Note You should use this option only on shares that are required by a third-party application for legacy support if the vendor states that it is required. Do not specify Leasing mode on user data shares or CA shares that are used by Scale-Out File Servers. This is because the removal of oplocks and leases causes instability and data corruption in most applications. Leasing mode works only in Share mode. It can be used by any client operating system.

Explorer Network Browsing

The Computer Browser service relies on the SMBv1 protocol to populate the Windows Explorer Network node (also known as “Network Neighborhood”). This legacy protocol is long deprecated, doesn’t route, and has limited security. Because the service cannot function without SMBv1, it is removed at the same time.

However, if you still have to use the Explorer Network in home and small business workgroup environments to locate Windows-based computers, you can follow these steps on your Windows-based computers that no longer use SMBv1:

Start the “Function Discovery Provider Host” and “Function Discovery Resource Publication” services, and then set them to Automatic (Delayed Start).

When you open Explorer Network, enable network discovery when you are prompted.

All Windows devices within that subnet that have these settings will now appear in Network for browsing. This uses the WS-DISCOVERY protocol. Contact your other vendors and manufacturers if their devices still don’t appear in this browse list after the Windows devices appear. It is possible they have this protocol disabled or that they support only SMBv1.

I recommend that you map drives and printers instead of enabling this feature, which still requires searching and browsing for their devices. Mapped resources are easier to locate, require less training, and are safer to use. This is especially true if these resources are provided automatically through Group Policy. An administrator can configure printers for location by methods other than the legacy Computer Browser service by using IP addresses, Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Bonjour, mDNS, uPnP, and so on.

If you cannot use any of these workarounds, or if the application manufacturer cannot provide supported versions of SMB, you can re-enable SMBv1 manually by following the steps in KB 2696547. I am listing the PowerShell and GUI steps below.

The SMBv2 protocol was introduced in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
The SMBv3 protocol was introduced in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

Since SCCM is our configuration management tool of choice, the SCCM client needs to get installed on all of our newly provisioned VMs.

I created a service account that only has read permission to the \\sccmserver\sms_sitecode\client share on the SCCM server. The client is installed from this location to ensure that we are always using the latest version and get rid of any need to manually copy files or put it in the template.

1. Make sure that you have your customization spec configured to log in once as administrator:

This maps a drive to your SCCM share using the service account, installs the client, and then reboots the virtual machine. I put a timeout (sleep) for 60 seconds in there to make sure the install has time to do what it needs to do and it is working well at this point.

3. Once the VM is created and customized and rebooted you should have a service ‘SMS Agent’ started (Automatic Delayed Start).

Working with so many versions of SQL a quick reference list is always helpful that shows the versions numbers and service packs.

A downloadable version of an Excel workbook that contains all the build versions together with their current support lifecycle stage for 2005 through the current version is available. Click to download this Excel file now. (File name: SQL Server Builds V3.xlsx)

This unofficial build chart lists all of the known Service Packs (SP), Cumulative Updates (CU), patches, hotfixes and other builds of MS SQL Server 2017, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008, 2005, 2000, 7.0, 6.5 and 6.0 that have been released.

I also looked under internaldomain.local > _msdcs and deleted entries from there.

After clearing the cache and waiting for replication, did a nslookup again and the IP was still there.

Well, there are some good and bad things about Microsoft DNS.

The BAD:

You cannot search DNS values in DNS Management. You are limited to searching just the names.

THE GOOD:

All DNS entries are stored in a flat file on the DNS Server “C:\WINDOWS\system32\dns\internaldomain.local.dns” (The default location). JACKPOT!

I opened it up in Notepad++, did a search for IP and DNS name of the demoted server(MWDC04-10.14.111.111) and started deleting matched entries. I was so surprised to find entries that were deeply buried under “domaindnszones” & “forestdnszones” and a few other subzones.

Cleared the cache again and waited for replication. Once replication completed I tried nslookup internaldomain.local and this time it didn’t list the demoted DC anymore.

I hope this saves others time, because finding a record in DNS might be like searching for a needle in a haystack!